Samsung keeping track of Apple CEO Tim Cook’s India moves, daily reports being sent to Seoul
Guess who else is following Tim Cook’s passage through India closely? Samsung Electronics, according to several people aware of the matter. With India emerging as the next big battlefield between the arch rivals, the South Korean company has been taking careful note of the Apple CEO’s itinerary to ga sense of the plans that the maker of iPhones and iPads may have, apart from any alliances that Cook is looking to forge. Daily reports are being sent to South Korea on where he’s going and whom he’s meeting along with commentary on the strategy that Apple may be looking to follow in order to maximise business. Samsung has formed a team comprising executives across functions to track Apple. The handheld products (HHP) business, which comprises mobile phones and tablets, has been entrusted with helming the exercise. “Updates are being sent on Cook’s moves, both through email and WhatsApp,” said one of the people cited above. “Samsung headquarters is extremely keen to know as much detail (as possible) since this is one of the longest visits which Cook is doing in any country recently and is tapping all possible sources for information.” “We strongly deny this. This is groundless and absolutely incorrect,” said the Samsung Southwest Asia spokesperson in response to emails from ET. Cook who landed in India on Tuesday night has had a hectic schedule in Mumbai and Hyderabad before flying off to Kanpur on Thursday to watch an Indian Premier League cricket match between the Gujarat Lions and Kolkata Knight Riders. The visit is likely to last all this week and a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled for Saturday in New Delhi. He met top Reliance Industries executives on Wednesday and has agreed to forge partnerships with Reliance Jio Infocomm and Reliance Retail for devices and implementing an enterprise solution developed by Apple and IBM, ET reported on Thursday. Samsung is also looking to forge a partnership with Reliance for selling its handsets through Jio’s network and launching its mobile payment service Samsung Pay, sources said. Others Cook met included Tata Sons Chairman Cyrus Mistry, ICICI Bank CEO Chanda Kochhar, Vodafone India CEO Sunil Sood and TCS CEO N Chandrasekaran. The global corporate rivalry between Apple and Samsung is among the most intense in recent times, with both firms regularly suing each other over patents and other matters, spending hundreds of millions of dollars on legal bills each year. The two have been fighting for supremacy in the premium smartphone segment in India, but the stakes are becoming higher considering that the country is set to overtake the US to become the second-largest smartphone market. Matt Carpenter Authentic Jersey
‘Absence of enough maintenance reserve puts lenders at risks’
Absence of adequate major maintenance reserve ( MMR ) for road projects based on build, operate and transfer ( BOT) model has exposed lenders to default risks , Icra today said in its latest study on the Indian road sector. According to Icra, concerted efforts to address execution bottlenecks have yielded positive results, as reflected in the 39 per cent increase in the pace of national highway execution at 5.39 km per day during April 2015-February 2016. “Icra’s assessment of major maintenance costs across several national highway projects reveals that the median cost per lane km was Rs 1.8 million. If lenders do not enforce creation of MMR immediately on commissioning of projects and instead allow tail periods to shrink through loan top-ups at the time of the first major maintenance, they could be exposed to default risks,” it said in a statement. Major maintenance (MM) is the largest expense item during the operations phase of a BOT road project, with each cycle involving expenditure of about 12 per cent of initial construction cost, it said. As per Icra estimates, the total estimated expenditure towards major maintenance during the project life could be as high as 60 per cent of the initial construction cost as a BOT project goes through 3-5 MM cycles depending on the length of the concession period. The study on 15 NH road projects, commissioned between 2005 and 2009, suggests that MMR was not created in 60 per cent of the operational BOT projects whereas it was not adequate to fund the MM cost in the remaining 40 per cent. Although the common loan agreements stipulate the creation of an MMR, lenders have not been proactive in enforcing the same, thereby allowing temporary surpluses, if any, to leak out of SPVs, it said, adding that adherence to MMR creation is higher in the case of debt raised in the form of bonds or NCDs. Rohit Inamdar, Senior Vice-President, Icra, said, “In the absence of adequate MMR, road SPVs are either dependent on sponsors for funds infusion or have to fall back on its tail period to raise additional debt. Therefore, the credit profile of most operational BOT projects are crucially linked to sponsors’ ability and willingness to fund MM cost and the sufficiency of tail period.” Inamdar, added that while high growth in commercial traffic boosts toll collections, it also increases major maintenance frequency and pushes up costs due to higher and faster wear and tear. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) plans to increase both awards and execution in the current fiscal by 2.5 times, from those of the 2015-16 levels. For NHAI, the targets are more steep with target execution of 8,000 km (21.92 km/day) and awards of 15,000 km. The target for 2016-17 is almost four times higher than what was achieved during 2015-16. Jermaine Gresham Jersey
Need to discuss with airlines on capping airfares: DGCA
Amid concerns over steep fluctuations in airfares, aviation regulator Directorate General Civil Aviation ( DGCA ) today said discussions need to be held with airlines before any decision on fixing upper cap on ticket prices. “If a capping of airfares is required, then we will have to have discussions with them airlines,” DGCA Director General M Sathiyavathy said here. To a query on whether capping airfare is a practical option in the context of free market principles, she said, “Let’s see. We need to have discussions.” The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) would start making public from this month the highest fare bucket or class rates levied by domestic airlines. When asked if the regulator has noticed significant fluctuations in air ticket prices, she said, “If the average rise has been less than 1.5 per cent or a maximum of 2 per cent in high fare bucket for the month of April. We will be monitoring it every month.” The DGCA is expected to release tomorrow the air traffic data for the month of April along with high fare bucket details. Responding to concerns expressed by Parliamentarians over surge in airfares during the recent Jat agitation and natural calamities, Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju earlier this month told the Lok Sabha that he would discuss the issue with stakeholders. To a query on proposed discussions with airlines in this regard, the DGCA chief said the minister has to fix the date and that “the matter is being looked into”. According to Sathiyavathy, airlines have come forward and offered extra flights during crisis times such as at the time of Chennai floods . Whether it was floods at Chennai and Srinagar, Jat agitation or earthquake in Nepal, on all the four occasions the DGCA interacted with the airlines, she said. During those times, the airlines “readily came forward and offered extra flights, some of them free of cost and as far as Chennai floods were concerned, in flights from Chennai to Hyderabad and Bengaluru,airlines pegged fares at Rs 2,500 per ticket,” she noted. Sathiyavathy also said that if there is a need to have a restriction on the upper limit of airfares during crisis periods, “we need to examine that, which is what the Minister has said”. On the issue of airlines hiking ticket cancellation charges recently, she said the DGCA is looking into the matter. “We have been trying to compare with international trends and like that.Analysis of cancellation charges will take more time,” she said. John Tavares Authentic Jersey
‘Agencies plan airspace management cells at major airports’
Civil and military agencies are seeking to set up airspace management cells at major airports to ensure optimal utilisation of airspace. Rear Admiral Philipose George Pynumootil , NM, Assistant Chief of Naval Staff (Air), today said in order to achieve real-time coordination for effective use of airspace, integration of sensors and systems is important. “A technical sub-committee has been formed to study the existing equipment and to explore the feasibility of integrating the same with Airports Authority of India (AAI) systems,” he said here. He said efforts are being made to form these cells at major airports which would “enable real-time airspace management in a dynamic environment which is the way ahead for the future”. With good growth expected in commercial air traffic, the Flexible Use of Airspace (FUA) concept is being followed for optimum utilisation of airspace. Under FUA, for military operations, utilisation of non-military airspace by creation of temporary segregated or reserved areas is permitted. Noting that there are many challenges to ensure successful civil-military air operations in the available airspace, Pynumootil said there has been coordination efforts which have bolstered the “synergy of civil military cooperation in aircraft operations”. The Indian Navy operates three joint user airports at Goa , Visakhapatnam and Port Blair . Alfred Blue Womens Jersey
DGCA chief M Sathiyavathy says India avoiding catastrophe because of secure practices
On the day when an EgyptAir plane carrying 66 people crashed over the Mediterranean Sea, DGCA chief M Sathiyavathy said all players in India were following safety measures which has prevented any major catastrophe in its airspace. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) chief said the aviation regulator was also playing its role, while referring to the EgyptAir plane mishap. “I am glad and thankful to God that at least in India we have not had any major catastrophe, basically because of the safety measures put in place, adopted and followed by all the players including defence forces, civil airlines, non-scheduled operators and lastly the regulator which has played its role” said Sathiyavathy. An EgyptAir flight headed from Paris to Cairo with 66 people on board crashed in the Mediterranean Sea today after it vanished from radar screens in Egyptian airspace. However, Sathiyavathy, the Director General at DGCA, emphasised the need for optimal utilisation of airspace citing the fast speed of growth in aviation sector. She was speaking at the Civil-Military Cooperation Conference, organised by Airports Authority of India (AAI) and the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). “Airspace is a finite national asset and while we have a lot of cooperation, we need to increase it. We need to engage more and ensure that we are making optimal use of the finite asset so that aviation in India can grow” Deion Jones Jersey
Jaipur to be first Light House City of South Asia
Jaipur would be the first smart connected community Lighthouse City in South Asia. With the announcement, which came on Wednesday, Jaipur has joined the league of Cisco Lighthouse cities globally such as Hamburg (Germany), Barcelona (Spain) and Adelaide (Australia). Cisco Lighthouse City status credential is assigned to a list of selected cities all over the world. The Lighthouse City engagement would be enabled through a joint working group which would focus on deploying next generation technologies to impact citizens and society. Cisco is collaborating with the city of Jaipur on a number of key initiatives aimed at advancing Jaipur’s vision of becoming a global model and standard for sustainable urban development. The Jaipur Development Authority (JDA) has chosen to develop smart city infrastructures that would improve the efficiency and quality of services for its 3.5 million residents and over 40 million tourists who visit the city every year. Chief minister Vasundhara Raje said that this is the first step towards realising the vision of digital Rajasthan. She claimed Jaipur had been chosen because of rapid transformation and modernisations that the city authorities had undertaken over the last couple of years. “Citizen centric solutions, which are ahead of its times, were implemented in the last two years,” she said. The announcement would enable Jaipur to gain access to Cisco’s huge global network and channel program capabilities. The city would also benefit from the economic and social transformation which is set to occur with the initiation of next phase of the Digital India program in the country. Keeping in view the huge competition between cities for talent, business, investment and tourism, a growing role for technology is being envisaged to enable the development of communities that champion social, environmental and economic sustainability. A smart connected community is designed with technology at the center to improve the efficient management of city operators and the development and delivery of new services to citizens. In addition Cisco in collaboration with technology leaders such as Qualcomm technologies, General Electrical and 3M India Limited announced the launch of innovation center at Jaipur. The innovation center would be housed and operated by Genpact and help accelerate co-innovation of Internet of Everything (IOE) based solution. The innovation center would be hosted by JDA and team up with startups, developers, government agencies and academic communities who as the same goal of bringing innovative ideas to life and jointly accelerating development of IoE solution of global skill. Robert Woods Jersey
Smart City: Government to announce names of 14 more cities soon
The government is all set to announce 14 more cities to be included in the first set of cities to receive funds under the smart cities mission, taking the total number to 34. “We will announce the next set of cities in one or two days and these will be included in the first set of cities that will receive the first tranche of funding,” urban development minister Venkaiah Naidu said at a CII event in New Delhi on Thursday. Under the mission, the government plans to develop 100 cities as smart cities with advanced infrastructure and facilities. It had earlier shortlisted 98 cities. Naidu said the 20 cities that had already been announced may require an investment of $8 billion whereas once all 100 cities were selected the cities may require $40 billion. Ryan Carpenter Jersey
Greek authorities find crashed EgyptAir plane debris: Egyptian civil aviation ministry
Greece will scale back search and rescue assets to find a missing EgyptAir airliner after objects thought to be from the aircraft were found in waters under Egyptian jurisdiction. Greek authorities have found “floating material” that is likely to be debris from the EgyptAir plane that crashed over the Mediterranean on Thursday, the Egyptian civil aviation ministry said in a statement. Egypt’s envoy to France said Greek authorities had informed his counterpart in Athens that they had found blue and white debris as part of its search for a missing EgyptAir plane. “All I will say is that our embassy in Athens told us that it was contacted by Greek authorities who signalled that they found white and blue debris corresponding to EgyptAir’s colours,” Ehab Badawy told BFM television. “I can’t confirm it is the debris, but it would be reasonable to think it is the debris of this plane,” he said. Greece to scale back EgyptAir search Greece will scale back search and rescue assets to find a missing EgyptAir airliner after objects thought to be from the aircraft were found in waters under Egyptian jurisdiction, two Greek government sources said on Thursday. Greece had deployed a frigate and air assets to the area south of the island of Karpathos after the airliner with 66 people on board dropped off radars overnight in Egyptian airspace minutes after leaving Greek airspace. A transport aircraft would remain in the area. Pieces of plastic and two lifejackets were found in the sea area about 230 miles (370 km) south of Crete. It was all found in waters under Egyptian jurisdiction, a Greek defence source said. Greek authorities earlier reported the aircraft took a sharp 90 degree turn left, and then spun 360 degrees in the opposite direction as it plunged from cruising altitude of 37,000 feet to 15,000 feet before disappearing off radars. Terrorism suspected Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail said it was too early to rule out any explanation, including an attack like the one blamed for bringing down a Russian airliner over Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula last year. The country’s aviation minister said a terrorist attack was more likely than a technical failure. A Greek military official says an Egyptian search plane has located two orange items believed to be from the missing EgyptAir flight. T.J. Yeldon Jersey
Mixed bag for India’s oil firms as explorers spend less, while refiners meet Capex targets
India’s oil firms had a mixed bag in capital expenditure in 2015-16, with exploration firms spending less, in line with the global trends in the bearish oil market, while refiners met or exceeded their targets. Higher profit, lower working capital requirement and reduction in borrowings due to lower oil prices encouraged refiners to fast-track execution of projects to cater to a rapidly rising demand for fuel in the country. But oil producers slashed capex plans in part due to lower oil prices and in part due to poor execution ability. State-run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) spent Rs 295.02 billion during the fiscal, nearly a fifth lower than originally planned, according to the oil ministry data. Its overseas arm ONGC Videsh invested just Rs 67.83 billion or 35% less than the targeted capex. Oil India Ltd spent nearly a tenth less. ONGC’s and Oil India’s cuts in capex were driven mainly by delays in the tendering process, company executives said. ONGC Videsh, which is mostly a junior partner in several overseas fields, cut its capex to align with partners responding to lower oil prices, they said. Cairn India, a private producer that controls about a quarter of the country’s oil production, reported a capex of just $248 million in 2015-16, much lower than the original plan of $1.2 billion. Cairn slashed its capex target several times during the year due to tumbling oil prices that resulted in its biggest quarterly loss of Rs 109.48 billion in January-March. GAIL, India’s largest natural gas pipeline operator, invested barely half of its target spending, primarily due to slower progress in some of its key pipeline projects stuck for years. With an investment of Rs 143.68 billion, Indian Oil Corporation, the nation’s largest refiner and fuel retailer, almost met its capex target while Hindustan Petroleum Corporation spent Rs 54.59 billion to marginally exceed its target. Bharat Petroleum Corporation spent Rs 109.26 billion, 12% more than its target. Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd, controlled by ONGC, missed its capex target by 10%. Overall, state-run oil companies missed their capex target by 13.5% during the fiscal. Lower oil prices and higher economic growth in the country pushed up fuel consumption 11% in 2015-16, encouraging refiners to fast expand capacity to capture the new demand. Refiners were also aided by the declining requirement of working capital and debt. At the end of March, the borrowings at Indian Oil Corporation had fallen to Rs 490 billion from Rs 862.63 billion two years ago. Similarly, the debt at BPCL and HPCL fell 18% and 38% respectively in two years. Hisashi Iwakuma Jersey
RIL to withdraw arbitration, begin KG drilling
RIL and its partner BP Plc are all set to begin their next phase of expansion at the Krishna-Godavari. In April, the Mukesh Ambani-led company invited tenders for drilling and recovering gas from three deep-sea clusters off the east coast of India including the R-series, Satellite-series and MJ-1 fields. But the most important aspect of any gas recovery by RIL and its partners is the pricing of gas. Sources in the government said that executives from both RIL and BP have met oil ministry officials to initiate talks of withdrawing the gas-pricing arbitration pending in Supreme Court. “These are deep-sea areas and RIL will get marketing and pricing freedom, that is, a higher price for gas from these areas, if they withdraw the litigation with the government,” said a source in the oil ministry without wanting to be named. He confirmed that the company has assured the government that it will initiate the process of withdrawing the litigation. Sources said that BP has been advising RIL to withdraw the litigation and the entire matter will be resolved by the end of the year. RIL did not respond to mails sent by HT. On March 11, the Union Cabinet had allowed free pricing of gas to developers drilling difficult terrains including deep-sea and high-pressure zones. During this decision it was also made clear that if the developer was engaged in a gas-pricing litigation with the government then this liberal pricing mechanism will not be applicable to them, unless the arbitration is dropped. According to the new pricing formula, from April a unit of gas produced from existing wells will fetch $3.15 per million British thermal unit (mmBtu), but gas from new deep sea wells will get $7 per unit. A presentation by the oil ministry said that the recent pricing freedom allowed by the Cabinet, will help monetise 6.5 tcf (trillion cubic feet) of gas valued at $28.35 billion, or Rs. 1.8 trillion. Of this, RIL has eight discoveries with 2.5 tcf of gas. BP is 30% partner in RIL’s 21 gas blocks, including the KG D6. Canada’s Niko Resources has 10% holding in KG D6. It was in 2014 that RIL proceeded with an arbitration demanding immediate implementation of the gas pricing formula as devised by the previous UPA regime Joe Kelly Authentic Jersey